Mitch McConnell’s moment: Debt ceiling deal maker or deal breaker?

Mitch McConnell doesn’t want to be known as the Republican who undercut House Speaker John Boehner – and he made that abundantly clear moments after Sen. Chuck Schumer praised the Kentucky Republican’s debt proposal in an appearance on MSNBC.

“Tell your henchman to stop saying nice things about me,” McConnell, the Senate minority leader, told Reid earlier this week, according to people familiar with the conversation. “It hurts me.”

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Even as he’s sought to project immovable unity with Boehner, the prospects for an eleventh-hour deal rest largely on McConnell’s shoulders. For weeks, he’s kept an open line of communication with Vice President Joe Biden, with whom he struck a deal with in December to extend Bush-era tax cuts, and he heard from President Barack Obama on Saturday, too. In the meantime, he’s been trying to keep anxious Republican senators at bay.

Democrats say McConnell has been disingenuous in his negotiating posture, and has been in virtual hiding for the past several days, with the government on the verge of an economically disastrous debt default.

But McConnell faces several competing objectives: He must maintain a united front with Boehner while also trying to find consensus with Democrats and limit a backlash from the tea party wing of his party. Even as he spoke with Biden, the Senate minority leader had refused to cut a deal with Democrats as Boehner was struggling to pass a bill that had no chance of becoming law.

By portraying no divisions with Boehner, the Senate Republican leader believes his party will have the greatest leverage in the final 48 hours of the high-stakes negotiations. But it’s also put McConnell in a tough position to offer concessions in a final deal that can pass a Democratic Senate and Republican House.

“He’s the pivotal player right now,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).

A shrewd tactician who is close to the business community, McConnell knows full well the potential damage a default can cause to the economy – and to the Republican Party as he tries to win the title of “majority leader” in the 2012 elections. By uniting behind Boehner, McConnell is being heavily influenced by the same tea party forces that have made it more difficult for the House speaker to get a bipartisan plan through the conservative House.

“The Mitch McConnell I’ve known in the past was so smart and a middle-of-the-roader … someone who was Senate old school, worked, listened, try to solve problems and work it out,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who has served with McConnell for nearly a quarter century, told POLITICO. “So I’m very puzzled with this new McConnell. And to align himself with Boehner is like you want to take navigation lessons from the captain of the Titanic who drove you into an iceberg.”

Publicly, McConnell is playing hardball — on Saturday he lined up 43 Republican senators to reject Reid’s proposal to raise the debt ceiling through the 2012 elections with a corresponding package of deficit cuts. And he attacked Obama for not engaging with him in the negotiations.

Reid called McConnell’s demands “somewhat illogical,” calling the Republican leader “a little bit confused” - and repeating his invitation for the two men to negotiate a compromise.

“I haven’t heard anything from the Republican leader,” a frustrated Reid told reporters Saturday afternoon, with scores of Democratic senators lining up behind him in the Senate’s ornate Mansfield Room.

Hours after bashing Obama, McConnell revealed that he had “several” discussions with Biden and that the talks were moving forward.

Readers' Comments (192)

None of these al Qaeda Republicans are interested in any deal. ……….. They just want to see Barack Obama grovel. ………….. These are not Americans anymore. ……… They hate America because America elected Obama, and they will not stop until Obama is humiliated. …………… They will burn everything.

Americans who are paying any attention at all know by now that if Progressive/Libs are sniveling like heart broken school girls the Republicans and TEA Partiers together are doing good things for the country as a whole.

McConnell and the rest of the Republicans are toast with or without the tea party, in fact the tea party is destroying the Republicans and they are to stupid to see that, how can anyone ever or at least for a long time ever trust a Republican.

Speaker Boehner did a masterful job. He allowed everyone in his caucus to have a voice and throughout the process he demonstrated courage, patience, and leadership. He has rendered the witch from san fran irrelevant, and handed Senator McConnell a mighty sledgehammer. .........poly sci 101

None of these al Qaeda Republicans are interested in any deal. ……….. They just want to see Barack Obama grovel. ………….. These are not Americans anymore. ……… They hate America because America elected Obama, and they will not stop until Obama is humiliated. …………… They will burn everything.

How cool is it that soldotnastan has set the standards for us? ………… From now on, whenever all the al Qaeda Republicans come on here and start blubbering like fat old hippowalrusauruses about all the stupid crap they go apoplectic over, we'll know that we're doing a good thing for the country. …………… Actually, what this shows is that it's best to duck to avoid all crap from the American Taliban, who soldotnastan joined up with when he first saw Obama's face.

How cool is it that soldotnastan has set the standards for us? ………… From now on, whenever all the al Qaeda Republicans come on here and start blubbering like fat old hippowalrusauruses about all the stupid crap they go apoplectic over, we'll know that we're doing a good thing for the country. …………… Actually, what this shows is that it's best to duck to avoid all crap from the American Taliban, who soldotnastan joined up with when he first saw Obama's face.

How cool is it that soldotnastan has set the standards for us? ………… From now on, whenever all the al Qaeda Republicans come on here and start blubbering like fat old hippowalrusauruses about all the stupid crap they go apoplectic over, we'll know that we're doing a good thing for the country. …………… Actually, what this shows is that it's best to duck to avoid all crap from the American Taliban, who soldotnastan joined up with when he first saw Obama's face.